A Japanese website by the name of Freshers recently conducted a poll pretty much reconfirming that domestic developers and publishers are still the clear favourites amongst Japan’s game-playing population.

The poll conducted last month asked 500 members of the public if they played video games, and those who answered "yes" were then asked to answer if they had a favourite developer. There were 73 remaining participants by this final stage, and as already revealed – Nintendo won.

To breakdown the stats, the house of Mario was a clear stand-out with 30 votes, followed by Square Enix in second with 18 and Capcom in third with 6. Eventually Sony and Konami showed up with 2, and others like former industry giant Sega scored a single nomination.

When participants were given the option to provide multiple answers, the top 3 developers remained the same. Out of all of this information probably the most interesting part of the poll was not so much where Nintendo and its fellow local competitors sat, but more so the fact that it wasn’t until #11 in the second poll that a foreign developer got a mention.

And to what may come as a surprise to many westerners, that award went to EA. The likes of Rockstar and Ubisoft went unmentioned – further proving foreign developers are still struggling to make an impact – and that the Japanese video game market still prefers domestic hits as opposed to foreign ones.

In saying that, it is still comforting to see Nintendo sits at #1 despite the hard times it has been facing recently (and even if this poll isn't an entirely accurate depiction of the greater Japanese population, given the small number of people quizzed). It’s at least clear Nintendo is still a prominent – and obviously respected – video game icon within Japanese society.